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The Bible confronts us with the following provocation in James 4:14, “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” This can be a discouraging, even depressing thought. A person’s life is like water, slowly boiling away under the heat of daily trials and monotonous tasks, and after all is said and done, there’s not much to show for it. The water is gone, and so is the mist of vapor that once gave evidence to it. Much of human existen...

“And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.” Mark 9:35 

Although we as Christians would give assent to the words of Jesus, there is something about His Kingdom which is entirely beyond us, even contrary to us. Contrary to our vision of a kingdom, contrary to our desires, contrary to everything we value and strive for, contrary to our self absorbed and self obsessed Facebooking and tweeting...

November 15, 1997 to November 15, 2017

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the death of my grandfather, Jerry Osborne. It seems both a moment and an eternity that I have been without him. I can still hear the sound of his voice. I can still hear the sound of his laugh, and the way he would even snort sometimes when the joke was funny enough. His mannerisms are still vibrant in my memory, as are his idiosyncrasies. The very last time I saw him alive was at the Los Angeles International A...

One of the greatest dramatic moments in American film takes place in the third act of Glory, when Private Silas Tripp (Denzel Washington) witnesses the regiment’s standard- the American flag- fall to the ground. As the soldier carrying the flag is shot dead on the battlefield, Silas takes up the standard once more and carries the banner forward, rallying the troops to continue their ill-fated charge against Fort Wagner.

As I think about my Grandpa today, I think of the first time I ever saw ...